Time

It’s been a while since I’ve written.  I’ve been busy with a few things.

All the way back in November … it was halftime of the Ohio State – Michigan game.  We had flipped the channel to the JMU game to watch a friend play.  JMU is never on our television.  Never.  We really do need to get to a game live-and-in-person next fall.  So anyway, I am standing next to the tv and my phone rings.  The number is in Atlanta, and I’m thinking , “I was just in Atlanta a few weeks ago, who do I know in Atlanta?”  And I answered. 

Often I don’t answer when I don’t recognize the number.  Nine times out of ten it’s a headhunter.  They prefer to be called executive recruiters.  And they usually have some boring job opening that doesn’t pay enough money to make me not want to slit my wrists, located of course in Podunk, Middle-of-Nowhere.  The headhunters call every day.  Every day.

So this dude tells me who he is and asks if it’s a good time to talk.  “No,” I tell him and explain why.  He calls me the next day – Sunday morning during the sermon.  I don’t pick up.  He calls Sunday night, while I’m upstairs at church taking care of some angel tree stuff.  I miss the call, but in trying to click on the voice mail link to listen to his message, I end up just dialing him back.  OK, I’ve got ten minutes until I need to teach.  I’ll see what he has to say.

To remind everyone what I’ve been up to … I’ve been a happy network marketer for the better part of a year.  Helping people clean up their eating, lose weight, get healthier in general.  All while getting myself healthier too.  Sometimes I even prospect the headhunters who call. J

Headhunter dude proceeds to tell me about this job opening.  It’s actually local.  And he mentions the name of someone I worked with in Corporate America.  Someone I’d call “one of the good guys”.   To make a long story short … I had a couple interviews, accepted an offer two days before Christmas, and officially joined the company in January. 

I’m employee number six of a new manufacturing startup.  I’m having such a blast … there are a lot of entrepreneurial aspects to this job.  I get to be part of building the culture and the workforce – one where people are more interested in doing the right thing than in politics and personal agendas.  And often what I show up thinking I’ll accomplish for the day is completely different from what actually happens.  In a good way.  An interviewee asked what a typical work day was like.  My response was, “Well, we haven’t had one yet, but here’s what I envision in the future …”

So yeah . The job is great, although it certainly requires me to redirect my time compared to my previous routine.  And there’s something to be said for cheap (relatively speaking) health insurance.  I had plenty of money to pay Cobra premiums, and I had another year of coverage, and there were multiple options after that.  But …

At the same time I was going through interviews for the new job … I was also going through more medical testing that finally started to reveal some answers to health issues I had been dealing with for months.  When God closes a door, he opens a window, right?  “So, Jenn, I’m gonna give you an incurable chronic condition, but at the same time I’m gonna give you a job that doesn’t suck, with benefits.” 

And no, I’m not going to go into detail about what’s wrong with me.  I’m fine.  I’m not terminal.  Those close to me know my deal, and that’s enough.  My cleaned-up nutrition helps things … another window.  J  To exercise or not to exercise – and exactly what that means – is an interesting issue that no one seems to have a good answer to, so my treadmill and I are figuring that one out on our own.

So if I just smile and say something to you like, “I didn’t do anything,” “It’s a long story,” or “I was arm wrestling Hulk Hogan,” it means you’re the 541^st person to ask today.  I appreciate the concern and prayers, I really do.  But the one word response will make you look at me like I have three heads because you’re not going to understand.  The two sentence explanation will make you look at me like I have five heads.  And the full ten minute saga will be, well, ten minutes of my life I will never get back.  Please don’t make me spend my time explaining.

Time.  God gives me the freedom to choose what I do with my time.  I didn’t choose the medical stuff, but I choose how I react to and deal with it.  (Pretty well, thank you very much.)  I choose to work my new day job and to appreciate what a cool opportunity it is.  I choose to continue helping people get healthy despite having fewer available hours in the day.

What a long strange trip it’s been so far.  A happy trip.